In Photos: The Significance of Street Art in Marseille, France

A photo tour of Marseille, France's, street art and graffiti—much of which reflects locals' criticisms of the city's recent renovations, meant to ready the town for its reign as the 2013 European Capital of Culture.

A giant trompe l’oeil mural by Pierre Delavie adorns the Palais de la Bourse, symbol of commerce and industry, on La Canebière in Old Town. The mural was commissioned for the 2013 festivities.

They’re coming: Thousands of surveillance cameras have been installed throughout tourist areas in preparation for Marseille’s big moment as a European Capital of Culture. Je te voi means “I see you.”

“The government doesn’t care about young French people,” says Alibert Nicolas, voicing a common frustration. Injured in a car accident at age three, the graffiti artist-turned-entrepeneur now helps young people find outlets for their work through his Eskis clothing line.

Gamo at work: For a montage on rue Crudère in Cours Julien, a neighborhood known for its street art, photographer Marta Ka invited passersby to pose in front of a design by Marseillais graffer Gamo, shown here.

A resident of Marseille, photographed by Marta Ka for the Shooting Angels montage in Cours Julien.

Another resident of Marseille photographed for the same mural.

A younger Marseille resident photographed for the montage.

Shooting Angels by photographer Marta Ka and graffiti artist Gamo.

A street corner in Cours Julien. Marseille’s street art is closely linked to its hip-hop culture.

A Cuban restaurant in Cours Julien, a quarter favored by artists, musicians, and bobos (bourgeois bohemians). Street art abounds, and so do ethnic restaurants. The one next door is Antillean.

One of Marseille’s many ethnic restaurants.

If you don’t decorate your doorway in certain neighborhoods, chances are somebody will do it for you. On the left, part of an elaborate mural on the front of a Ukrainian restaurant. On the right, a typical doorway in Cours Julien.

Comments surround a portrait by Alice Pasquini, some of them not so nice. “Maybe because she’s from Paris,” says an observer (the rivalry between the two cities goes way back). In fact, Pasquini is an Italian artist based in Rome.

The newly spiffed up Old Port, where fishing boats vie for berths with luxury yachts.

A mural in the Panier, the oldest neighborhood in the city, settled by Greeks in 600 BC. The quarter, which overlooks the Old Port, has traditionally been a refuge for successive waves of immigrants, many of them making their living from the sea.

The Panier’s steep and narrow streets made it a favorite hideout of Resistance fighters.

Lines of colorful laundry are a common sight in Marseille’s residential neighborhoods.

A mural in the Panier. Since the 17th century, Marseille’s oldest quarter has been a working-class neighborhood. Among its famous offspring: Le Rat Luciano, member of the hip-hop group Fonky Family.

No Posters: A notice quoting a 19th-century law invites graffiti artists and taggers to stay away. The city spends more than $1.2 million a year erasing tags and graffiti.

An ice cream shop on Place de Pistoles in the Panier.

Detail from a painting on the front of an ice-cream shop.

A wall in the Panier, the city’s oldest quarter, where gentrification is forcing out lower-income residents. The slogan—the title of a song by rappeuse Keny Arkana—decries the changes wrought by “Euromed,” the city’s giant urban renewal project.

Jewel of the Panier: The Baroque-style Vieille Charité was built in the 17th century as a refuge for the homeless at a time when the poor were typically imprisoned. Today the former almshouse is a museum.

Warriors bearing the Arab crescent. Translated, the text in one corner of the large mural (partially shown here) reads “Ready to die for the glory of my standard.”

Capital of many cultures: A mural in Cours Julien celebrates the city’s multiethnic population.